From The Coaching Ranks #3 … Wednesday Cup O’Chiefs

Let’s say Minnesota Vikings head coach Brad Childress shows up for work one morning with an idea that he wants communicated to his football team. And let’s say that Childress wants this message delivered in personal fashion, one-on-one to highlight the importance of the situation.

All Childress would have to do is assign himself and each member of his coaching staff two players on his 53-man roster. He would have the whole team covered. That’s what can get done when a football team has a coaching staff of 26 men, so with NFL regular season rosters at that 53 number, there’s one coach for every two players.

No other team in the NFL in the 2010 season comes close to matching the size of Minnesota’s staff. Baltimore, Seattle and San Francisco each have 22-person coaching staffs.

At the other end of the spectrum New England, Cleveland and Dallas all three teams have coaching staffs numbering just 15 men.

Todd Haley and his Chiefs staff this year rank among the bottom half of the league in size with its 17 members. There are 21 of the 32 teams that have more coaches than the Hunt Family operation.

 

The talk of assistants and coaching staffs has been bubbling underneath the league for most of this year because of the uncertainity of the 2011 labor situation. Just about all of the NFL assistant coaches have contracts that will not bring them any compensation if the league decides to lockout the players. Owners have made it plain they do not want to pay coaches when there are no players to coach. One NFL GM speculated recently that only one or two percent of the assistant coaches have contracts with their teams that will keep them receiving checks if the game shuts down.

Why is there such a gap between coaching staff sizes, from 26 to 15 this year? Finances are a big factor with some clubs. There’s no public financial information on most assistant coaches so it’s hard to put an average salary number on the group. But at the NFL level, it seems that most position coaches are at least into six figures, with assistant position coaches and assistants of assistants making anywhere from $30,000 to $75,000. Some teams have young and hungry prospective coaches working around the team for nothing more than an office to sleep in and a cafeteria to provide three squares a day.

There are also some old-school thinkers in the NFL who believe the increased coaching staffs do more to complicate the game and a team’s preparation than helps. Many old-timers grouse on a regular basis about today’s player not being able to play the game with his head, because they are used to having multiple coaches tell them what to do.

When Herm Edwards took over as head coach of the Chiefs for the 2006 season, he inherited a coaching staff that under Dick Vermeil had 21 positions, with two coaches on both lines and in the secondary and a pair of special teams coaches. In Edwards first season, he had a staff of 17, with those extra coaches on the offensive line, defensive line, secondary and special teams gone.

At the time, Edwards explained the reason for the change was to streamline the operation and to put just one voice in the ear of players at their position. With two defensive backs coaches that made four different voices those cornerbacks and safeties would have to acknowledge and assimilate: head coach, defensive coordinator and a pair of secondary coaches.

“Too many voices,” Edwards said then. “As a player you can hear too many voices. There’s no need for that. We can get done what we need to get done with fewer bodies. It makes it easier for everyone to be on the same page, because there are fewer translations of the message.”

Haley’s second staff with the Chiefs is an odd mix of old and new. There are six coaches on the staff that have a cumulative 202 years of coaching experience and 134 seasons of coaching in the NFL. Romeo Crennel, Gary Gibbs, Steve Hoffman, Bill Muir, Emmitt Thomas and Charlie Weis are the staff graybeards.

On the other end of the spectrum are seven coaches that have a cumulative 46 years in football coaching, with 18 seasons in the NFL. That group is Richie Anderson, Bernie Parmalee, Anthony Pleasant, Nick Sirianni, Pat Perles, Otis Smith and Adam Zimmer.

AFC

NFC

NFL PERSONNEL & FOOTBALL NEWS FILE FOR TUESDAY, JULY 20

• COLLEGES – Former Chiefs RB Mike Garrett is out as athletic director at Southern Cal, replaced by former Trojans QB Pat Haden. This all stems from the NCAA sanctions that came down recently involving Reggie Bush and O.J. Mayo. The school announced it was sending back its copy of the Heisman that Bush won and they are removing all pictures and trophies involving the two players.
• JURISPRUDENCE – former Raiders QB JaMarcus Russell entered a plea of not guilty on Tuesday on charges of possession of a controlled substance. Russell was arrested at his home in Mobile, Alabama on July 5th.
• BEARS – signed QB Mike Teel – he maybe just a training camp arm, as he’s the fourth passer on the roster. Teel was a ’09 draft choice of the Seahawks who was cut back in May by Seattle. He then spent three weeks with the Patriots before he was released again. Jay Cutler, Caleb Hanie and Dan LeFevour are the other QBs on Chicago’s roster.
• BENGALS – signed 7th-round draft choice G Reggie Stevens to a 4-year contract, terms undisclosed – a product of Iowa State, Stevens can play center or guard and that will help his chances of sticking in Cincinnati.
• BUCCANEERS – signed 2nd-round draft choice DT Brian Price to a 4-year contract, terms undisclosed – the 35th player selected in April’s Draft, the UCLA product figures to get plenty of playing time in the Tampa Bay defensive front in the ’10 season.
• COLTS – released WR John Matthews – an undrafted rookie out of the University of San Diego who did not step forward during the OTAs.
• COWBOYS – released NT Junior Aumavae and LB Donovan Woods – Aumavae was an undrafted rookie out of Minnesota State and Woods spent the last two seasons with the Steelers.
• DOLPHINS – signed 3rd-round draft choice G John Jerry to a 4-year, $2,640,000 contract with a $850,000 signing bonus – big man out of Ole Miss factors in the fight for left guard playing time.
• JAGUARS – signed 3rd-round draft choice DT D’Anthony Smith to a 4-year, $2,640,000 contract – the Louisiana Tech product was impressive enough in the off-season work in Jacksonville that he has a chance to play.
• JETS – announced the first members of the team’s Hall of Fame that will be inducted in August. They are: former coach Weeb Ewbank, QB Joe Namath, WR Don Maynard, RB Curtis Martin, OT Winston Hill and DT Joe Klecko; signed DT Martin Tevaseu – an undrafted rookie out of UNLV, he was signed first by the Browns and released last month.
• PANTHERS – signed 3rd-round draft choice WR Brandon LaFell to a 4-year, $2,600,000 contract with a $819,000 signing bonus – LSU product had a disappointing senior season and fell out of first-round consideration in the ’10 Draft. There’s a lot of Dwayne Bowe in LaFell’s game.
• RAMS – signed 6th-round draft choice TE Fendi Onobun to a 4-year, $1,920,000 contract with a $129,000 signing bonus – a converted basketball player from the University of Houston, Onobun is a pass catcher at tight end not a blocker.